A quick catch-up from the last couple of weeks or so. The recent Spring weather has allowed plenty of opportunities to get out and about including several hikes up Pendle.

I’d love to watch and photograph Hares boxing. A couple of weeks ago I came close to achieving this when I spotted a pair chasing each other in a local field. Unfortunately when I arrived on the scene I guess I missed the boxing as the female wasn’t playing too hard to get. In the 45 minutes or so I had resting my camera on a drystone wall these two mated twice. Both times I captured the final throe of passion so to speak..

Brown Hare mating – Don’t try this at home!

The same morning I was treated to a Tawny Owl perched on a tree branch. The light wasn’t great, the iso on my Nikon D7000 was at 6400 for this shot…

Tawny Owl

I managed to get round to the front of the Owl in better light, this one iso 1800. I think I prefer the previous image looking through the twigs and branches rather than having them cluttering the background..

Out on a limb..

Next up, a Nuthatch obliging with a classic pose..

Nuthatch

On the way home, a definite sign of Summer, although one doesn’t make one as the saying goes..

Swallow

Also, a recent brief encounter with a Barn Owl..

Barn Owl

The recent hikes up Pendle have been rewarded with Ring Ouzel, a migrant thrush that shows up this time of year..

Ring Ouzel on centre stage with Meadow Pipit

Ring Ouzel and a Rabbit

At the top of the hill…Raven..

Raven

Finally, a hunting Kestrel..

Kestrel

That’s more than enough images for one post, there’s many more and a shed load that need deleting from my hard drive. The weather for the weekend, surprise surprise, is to take a turn for the worse so at least I should get the chance to try and sort through them!

The miserable weather last weekend and also yesterday (Good Friday) put a halt to any outdoor ventures so with a fine forecast for today I rose early to make the most of it. I decided the night before that I’d try Pendle Hill, it’s a good time of year up there and now it’s Spring things are starting to happen – in nature that is!

First bird of the day was the reliable Kestrel, they are always to be found in good numbers on the local moor.

Kestrel

The dry stone walls can be a magnet for wildlife, the Meadow Pipits are a regular feature..

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Once the top of a very misty Pendle was reached, the first bird to be seen and of course heard was the Skylark (see top of page), in fact there’s quite a large number of them up there, singing their song as they rise in flight.

Meadow Pipits are usually described as streaky buff brown which sounds quite boring but they were shining brightly in the dark heather..

Other notable birds seen up there were a flock of about a dozen Golden Plover and the usual Red Grouse, in fact I nearly stood on one right by the side of the Downham path, it flushed at the last second and nearly gave me a heart attack!

The sun came out in the afternoon so I took a stroll along the local river, Grey Wagtail and Dipper were both very active. I was also treated to a Kingfisher flypast, no chance of a photo, it happened in a flash, quite literally!

Grey Wagtail

Dipper

Finally, an unexpected but welcome surprise. A little further on my “circuit”, something to my right caught the eye. A pale large winged bird was flitting between the trees at the edge of a plantation quite some distance away. I was pretty sure what it was and so I hung around in hope that it would come out into the open…sure enough it did, if only for a few short seconds. I managed a few distant in flight photo’s but the distance was a bit of a stretch for any decent quality. Typical that for the afternoon I’d decided to use my lighter, shorter length lens although I did capture a couple of decent shots when it perched in a far away tree.

The two photo’s are both large crops but I quite like how they show the bird in it’s natural habitat – it ain’t all about close-ups… Anyway, to close, here they are…